Vehicle searches proper incidents of detention of occupants

Two cases released today, one from the Supreme Court and the other from the Court of Appeal, uphold vehicle searches as proper incidents to the lawful detention of people in the vehicles.

R. v. Loewen, 2011 SCC 21:

2.         Lawfulness of the Search Incident to Arrest
 
 
[10]                          The trial judge noted that "[t]he connection of the search to the arrest is not disputed" (para. 27).  Notwithstanding Berger J.A.'s view to the contrary, we conclude that the trial judge made no error in concluding that the search was properly incidental to arrest, and did not violate s. 8 of the Charter


R. v. Plummer, 2011 ONCA 350:

[53]         However, there is nothing in Mann confining a search incidental to an investigative detention to only the person detained. Indeed, in Mann, the court actually considered both a pat-down search of the person detained, which it upheld, and a search inside the detainee's pockets, which it found to be unreasonable. Accordingly, I agree with this court's interpretation of Mann in R. v. Batzer (2005), 200 C.C.C. (3d) 330 at para. 16: "the [Supreme Court of Canada] leaves the clear inference that on the right facts, a search incidental to a lawful stop could comply with the common law and pass constitutional muster even though it went beyond a pat down."